“Spark, Ballad, Time for dinner!”

The sound of scrambling hooves echoed through the halls of the two-floor home in Canterlot as two fillies came barreling down the stairs. One was a unicorn with a black mane and a white coat, and the other was a grey earth pony with a coat of grey and a light grey mane. The two rushed into the white marble-floored kitchen and immediately took seats at the table. Standing before the stove was another earth pony mare with a similar coat and mane coloration as the younger, but unlike her apparent daughter, she had her cutie mark: a treble clef. The two young fillies sat quite impatiently at the table, kicking their legs in anxious waiting. A minute passed before the elder earth pony mare spoke again.

“Vinyl Scratch, dinner’s ready!”

Another minute passed by and there was still no response. The mare looked toward her two children and asked, “Do you two know where your other mother is right now?”

“I think mom was working on her new mix,” the white unicorn filly replied.

Letting loose an irritated sigh, the grey mare walked over to the stairs, looked up them and promptly shouted, “Vinyl Jennifer Scratch, you come down and join your family for dinner this instant, or so help me-!”

“Hold your horses, Octy! I’m coming!” replied a voice from upstairs, interrupting the grey mare’s shout. “I was just writing something!”

Octavia shook her head in disbelief. “Vinyl, I must have heard you wrong. Did you say you were writing something?”

“Yeah! Hang on, I’ll be down to show you guys in just a minute!”

“Um...all right, then,” Octavia replied, walking back to the kitchen slowly. ‘Vinyl, MY Vinyl, writing something?’ she thought. ‘Then again, she’s surprised me a number of times before. Though I have to wonder...what could she be planning this time?’

A moment later, Vinyl came running down the stairs with a rather large stack of paper held in the grasp of her light blue magic. Her electric blue mane flowed like water in her wake as she quickly hopped up onto the chair next to Octavia and set the pages down on the table. “Sorry...I took...so long,” she panted out, running a hoof through her mane to push it back out of her face. “I wanted this...to be...as good as I could make it.”

“But...what exactly is it, Vinyl?” Octavia asked.

“Well,” Vinyl began. “You know how you said you wanted the kids to know about our pasts and stuff? What we did before we got together and started our family?”

Octavia nodded. “I recall such a conversation, but I’m just a bit surprised you do as well.”

Vinyl pressed a hoof to her chest, mocking injury. “Oh how sting me with your words, Octy!”

“You know I kid, darling,” Octavia said through a chuckle, leaning over and kissing Vinyl on the cheek. “Now, you were saying?”

“Well, I decided to get a head start on it about a month ago, and all of my hard work went into this!” Vinyl exclaimed happily, placing her hoof atop the pages sitting on the table. “This is my autobiography up to right now!”

Octavia stared at the stack of paper in both shock and awe. “This is...everything, your entire life?”

“Well, all I can remember that would matter,” Vinyl replied. “Starting just before I left home to find my way.”

“Are you gonna read it now, mom?” asked the unicorn filly.

“Not just yet, Sparks,” answered Vinyl, ruffling the filly’s mane. “First, we’re gonna eat.”

"After all," Octavia added, "Our friends were kind enough to provide us with a discount."

The two fillies nodded happily and dinner was underway. Octavia had prepared a sweet vegetable stew, complete with Carrot Top’s carrots, the Apple Family’s freshly-grown apples and lettuce and tomatoes from Octavia’s own little garden outside their house. Octavia had also squeezed out fresh apple juice from the leftover apples, and to top it all off, a loaf of bread fresh from Sugarcube Corner’s oven, courtesy of Pinkie Pie, sat as a makeshift centerpiece on the table as it was steadily devoured over the course of the meal. After their plates were cleaned and the dishes had been washed up, Vinyl made her way to the living room and lit up the fireplace, glancing outside at the snow-covered Ponyville. The weather made going anywhere impossible, which made it perfect for a storytelling evening. She then stationed herself in the large electric-blue armchair closest to the fire, leaving plenty of room for Octavia who snuggled in next to Vinyl. Their two fillies rushed to their accustomed listening positions, nestling comfortably in the two bean bag chairs in the middle of the room.
“Now,” Vinyl began, “You remember what I told you girls about the first time I met your mother?”

“Yeah, you broke into her hotel room and she let you stay!” Spark proclaimed.

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot more to it than a simple romantic break-in,” Vinyl continued.

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Right…that was romantic.”

Vinyl chuckled lightly and cleared her throat. “There’s a whole story behind it, and I’m gonna start from the beginning.”

“How close to the beginning, mom?” asked Ballad.

“The VERY beginning, my dears!” exclaimed Vinyl, throwing her hooves into the air and almost elbowing Octavia in the face. “You see, back when I was sixteen, I lived with my dad in his music shop, and I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life.”

Vinyl began to weave her fantastic tale, only checking back to the papers for any specific details she might have missed. As the storm raged outside, Octavia and the two fillies sat enchanted by Vinyl Scratch’s story.

“This is how I learned who I really am.”

Author's Note

All right! Here it comes! Time for a revamp of my first fic ever, Requiem Rivalry!

And I'll admit. I'm not really writing this for anyone but myself at this point. Because if it's not something I'd enjoy reading, then I wouldn't expect anyone else to enjoy either!